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Lightning Rail Attack and Aftermath
The party had little time to relax on the lightning rail as it was attacked in the night by an Emerald Claw cell. They took crew and passengers hostage while preparing the theft of precious cargo being transported from the Deep Mine. With the aid of Josephine, a seamstress-turned-Sovereign-Sword, the party fought against the Emerald Claw. At one point, Hohenheim attempted to disguise himself as one of the Emerald Claw, but was quickly found out and thrown from the train. In true wild west fashion, he dusted himself off, conjured up a horse, and proceeded to chase down the train all while blasting away with a wand of magic missile. Hohenheim found himself unable to stop the forward progress of the rapidly accelerating lightning rail and disconnected the front engine from the rest of the train while he searched the attached crew cart for Gin’s unconscious body. The two of them narrowly avoided death as the engine rounded a bend too quickly, derailed, and rolled over the cliff. While he dealt with that, Siegfried and Josephine climbed to the train top and headed to the rear of the lightning rail where they confronted the captain in charge, his warforged artificer companion, two air skiffs, and the rest of the Emerald Claw detail. The two were hopelessly outnumbered, but refused to give up. Siegfried attempted to leap off the train and grab ahold of a rope connected to one of the skiffs, but missed his mark. No one expected him to land on Hohenheim’s abandoned horse. Josephine, too, leapt onto the horse, but the captain ordered his crossbowmen to take down the horse, preventing the party members from chasing them down. The Emerald Claw departed, having obtained the cargo they came for. Meanwhile, Kaziim had been instructed to locate another dragonmarked House Orien member on the train. Once located, the Orien member ran to the rear engine and activated it, forcibly decelerating the lightning rail before it could follow the front engine cart to the bottom of a canyon. The party regrouped and discovered that Hohenheim and Gin were missing. Kaziim last saw Hohenheim on the front engine cart and, as the party could find neither Hohenheim nor Gin, believed they had gone over the cliff. House Orien and Zilargo officials arrived to clear the wreckage and take everyone back to Zolanberg, where the party spent the night. The following day, they continued on to Korranberg on a new lightning rail. While in Korranberg, the party searched for a way into Sharn. Most of the party required travel papers to cross the border into Breland. Leads at House Tharashk and House Sivis fell through and the party decided to tackle the Library of Korranberg and the Temple of Aureon separately. At the library, Ekhaas, Kaziim, Ixen, and Rohagar tried to find a job that would give them entrance into Breland. They petitioned to join their quest for the Ashen Crown with the Library of Korranberg’s interest in the study of the Dhakaani Empire. A professor contacted the department head via a Sivis Speaking Stone and connected the party members with him. Much to their chagrin, they discovered the department head was Midian Mit Davandi. Ekhaas, being one that Midian hadn’t met before, spoke for the group and made their case. She and Midian came into contention, however, when it was indicated that the Library of Korranberg had a deal with the Darguun government to turn over any Dhakaani artifacts to Lhesh Haruuc. Ekhaas refused this deal, as the Kech Volaar had tasked her with retreiving the Ashen Crown for them. Siegfried and Josephine had moderately better luck, but only in that their meditations at the temple led them to their only remaining option: speaking with a contact Josephine had at the Zilargo/Breland border. As the party prepared to leave, they stumbled across a man named Jack who claimed to be from the House Orien rescue party that was sent to the train wreckage. He was carting around Gin, who was still alive but unconscious. Jack, feeling somewhat responsible for Gin’s well-being, decided to follow the party as they headed to Sharn. They purchased horses and supplies and set out across Zilargo to the western border.